Lincoln University Take’s On National Colic & Reflux Survey

In 2012, Philippa Murphy, a
recognised Postnatal Liaison Educator and specialist in
these symptoms, launched a National Survey on Colic and
Reflux – the first in New Zealand and internationally for
at least a decade. 153 parents shared their experiences in
the hope of increased understanding and provoking change.
Lincoln University answers their call.

Researchers at
Lincoln are currently analysing the data collected in the
survey. The results will then be compared with other leading
international studies, be passed onto parent and health
organisations worldwide with intended publication in medical
journals. Murphy says, they will also be used to promote and
build guidelines for ‘preventative education programmes’
which will ideally be funded by the government and available
to all families.

The survey asked parents their thoughts
on the causes of colic and reflux, the methods they used to
bring calm, the behaviours witnessed, feeding winding and
sleeping practices, and whether they felt supported enough,
both within antenatal education and postnatal care.
Furthermore they were given the opportunity to tell their
story in their own words. ‘Their experiences are enough to
bring anyone to tears,’ Murphy says. ‘Some parents spoke
of coming very close to hurting their baby, many of
‘yelling at them’ or ‘holding them tighter’ than
they should. Other common responses included; isolation,
inadequacy, no bond or love formed and a huge amount of
guilt, as was the cry for more understanding within society.
These feelings can naturally form when we combine this kind
of stress with sleep deprivation. With our high rate of
child abuse, our knowledge about attachment, and the
consequences on development for newborns in these
overstretched environments, the passion for change runs
high.’

Allan Schore, a renowned scientist, clinical
psychologist and neuropsychologist states, “We now know
that the evolutionary mechanism of attachment does more than
just provide baby with a sense of safety and security.
Rather, attachment drives brain development, five-sixths of
which happens postnatally.’ Schore goes onto say that
brain growth ‘more than doubles in the first 12 months,
and 40,000 new synapses are formed every second in the
infant’s brain. But, importantly, this brain growth is
influenced by “social forces”, and is therefore
“experience dependent.” It requires not only nutrients,
but the emotional experiences embedded in the relationship
it co-creates with the primary caregiver.”

Some believe
government funded, mandatory education in the antenatal
stages for the prevention of colic and reflux could offer a
significant reduction in New Zealand’s high child abuse
rate. UNICEF NZ’s National Advocacy Manager, Barbara
Lambourn, has been quoted in saying, ‘we must invest more
in children. If we fail to invest at the right time we pay
for it down the track to put right what we get wrong in the
early years.” UNICEF ranked New Zealand 21 of 35 countries
for levels of child poverty in March 2013.

An article in
the NZ Herald in November 2013, reported that outcomes from
an 18-month cross-party inquiry by the parliamentary health
committee recommends New Zealand changing its health
priorities from the last two years of life to the womb if it
is to improve its record on child health and child abuse.
‘Currently, more than half the Government’s $14 billion
health budget goes towards caring for people later in life
when research shows it would make more economic and social
sense to do the exact reverse.’ Committee chairman Paul
Hutchison said, "Intervening in the first three years, when
children are at their most receptive stage of development,
has been shown to have the potential to permanently alter
their development trajectory and protect them against risk
factors present in their daily environment.” The work of
Heckman” a Nobel Prize-winning American economist that the
inquiry was asked to investigate, “has built up compelling
economic evidence that investment in the very early years,
probably from pre-conception, will yield a significantly
higher return for every dollar than delayed investment,
provided the intervention is of high quality and is evidence
based." The committee said that once a New Zealand evidence
base was established, the Government should move quickly to
reprioritise its focus and investment towards the period
between pre-conception and 3 years old.’ Murphy intends to
use the evidence based results from the survey along with
her evidence based research to resubmit a low cost pilot
antenatal education programme to the government.

Alex
Simpson, a mother whom took part in the survey, echoed a
collective parent reaction to the lack of practical
postnatal education, ‘Taking antenatal class’s tricks
you into thinking you are well prepared, so it's an even
larger shock to the system how hard a newborn can be!’
Many parents commented they weren’t taught what
‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ behaviours were for a
newborn. They didn’t hear about colic or reflux until
there baby was experiencing it. Some parents said, until you
are going through it, nothing can prepare you. Murphy agrees
with this to some extent, ‘the reality is exhaustive on so
many levels and currently, very confusing with all the
conflicting and misleading information available. However,
avoidance of these behaviours is now possible for many cases
by teaching basic newborn biology and new proven findings to
parents before birth. Prevention through early education is
key for newborns, parents, society and government
expenditure.’

The survey also features information
about the growing, worldwide concern over the safety of
extensively prescribed acid suppressants for the symptoms of
Gastroesophageal Reflux (GER) in newborns. A March 2013
article in the New Zealand Sunday Star Times reported,
‘prescription rates for acid suppressants have soared in
recent years due to a trend toward labelling reflux as a
disease, when in fact infants are just grizzly and cry for
hours,’ according to a paper published in the NZ Medical
Journal. The paper said, ‘research shows acid suppressants
have no role in the management of reflux. Yet, despite being
unlicensed for use in infancy, the acid suppressant Losec
prescription rate for Canterbury infants alone tripled from
4 per cent to 15 per cent between 2005 and 2010.’ In the
Sunday Star article, Dr Ben Hudson said the drug Omeprazole,
also known as Losec, can be harmful to children, including
increasing the risk of gut infections and pneumonia. "They
haven't been used so extensively and so long in children so
long-term safety is much less understood than in adults. But
even in adults there's growing concerns about long term
side-effects, like kidney damage."

Murphy agrees,
‘reflux is treated too much like a disease however,
inconsolable crying/screaming of a newborn for hours on end
or even half an hour, is not normal. Nor is mass refluxing.
Thankfully though we now have new information available to
prevent and remedy colic and reflux behaviours naturally.
Parent’s no longer have to resort to highly controversial
acid suppressants which do nothing to treat the cause, only
mask the symptoms and cause adverse reactions.’

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